sept 13

So today  we are two days away from the eleventh.
Good.
Like veterans day and memorial day we indeed should reflect on the wqars that have besieged us, mainly if you are in yourneigthies  and remember Korea and the vietnam war s and the loss of indochina in 1954 and our current conflicts in the Middle east.
The tenth anniversary of 9/11 was a little overdone.
Good, because many people remember that day.
The first time in more than a hundred years that5 thre americn public had experienced the horror of a losing battle.
All other recent conflicta had been fought on a foreigh soil. But that day for the first time since the British  burned the Whitehouse in 1862, I think, the American population  witnessed the horror of war on their own soil - home!!
 This indelible witnessing of the American soil violated by enemy forces has scarred the mind of our population and tyhis is why this event is paramount in our psyche and supplants all fears we may have of conflicts in foreign lands.

Jacques

jUNE 6 1944

JUNE 6, 1944

June 6, 1944, more than sixty five years ago, D-Day, the landing of the Allied Forces in Normandy. 

I will always remember that day.  I was then a young teenager living with my parents in Paris in occupied France.  In 1940, France had collapsed under the onslaught of the German Panzer divisions and of the screaming of the diving stuka planes.  The British had scampered out at Dunkerque and the Yanks sat home in neutral isolation.  Suddenly, over France, in 1940 and for the next four years, a huge lid of oppression had fallen.  A nightly curfew, restricted travel, censored mail, controlled press, hostages, identity check points, rationing were ruling our lives.  Cold, hunger, misery, fear, danger became our daily lot. Those next four years were going to be a long dark tunnel.

Some nights, air raids on the Renault factory in the north of Paris where Germans manufactured tanks illuminated the sky and we could see the lights and hear the rumble of the explosions.  Most often, lying in my bed, I would hear the air-raid warning of the sirens wailing up and down but I would go back to sleep.  After a while you get tired and fatalistic; might as well die in bed.

Of course there were the German posters, plastered all over the city announcing reprisals, execution or deportation of hostages.  And there were those stories whispered between my parents about their friends denounced to the Gestapo by their neighbour, their mother-in-law, their wife!

Every evening we would gather close to our TSF (radio set) to  listen to Radio London our only link to the free world.  We had to listen intensely, for the  broadcast was jammed by the Germans in two ways.  First, there was the  background noise of a buzzing saw.  Then, superimposed over it, was the  repeating sound of a child's music box, tee-ta-ta-tee-ta-ta-ta. In the background the  voice of the announcers would rise and fall as if carried by the waves  of the English channel. The broadcast opened with the characteristic beat of Bethoven  Fifth on the drums:  ta-ta-ta-dum, ta-ta-ta-dom.  The program always started the same way: first "Les Français  parlent aux Français," intoned the announcer. "The  French people speak to the French people."  Then the daily count of our struggle:  "Aujourd'hui, six Juin 1944, le mille quatre cent quarante neuvième  jour de la lutte du peuple Français pour sa libération."  Yes, from day one, back in 1940, they had been counting the days and today, June the  6th 1944 was "the 1449th day of the struggle of the French people for  its liberation."  Usually,the news came after that standard opening. 

On that day, June the sixth, suddenly, after four years of hope and  prayer, we heard the amazing announcement, a terse statement:  "Today,  at dawn, the Allied Forces have landed in Normandy."

The impact of those few words was tremendous. The weight of those years of desolation and despair suddenly disappeared; we could see the light at the end of the tunnel. We had been in a huge jail for four years, under extreme jeopardy, with hunger and arbitrary arrests, but the doors were opening, our liberators were coming.  The sense of relief was immense and hard to describe. Soon, we would again live without fear. We had not endured in vain.

 At sixteen, suddenly my life came to a momentous turning point.  I was going to be free to live again, not simply to survive from day to day.

The sixth of June 1944 is a date I remember vividly.  It embodies the sadness of war and the sacrifices of many.  The feeling of liberation and of relief on that day, sixty five years ago, is unforgettable because it marked the culmination of our fight for freedom.

Freedom, the essence of our reason on earth.    ****   

  JMG -     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~      

THE WORLD AS IT SHOULD BE

              On a recent morning I had an early appointment in Boca so I was

         driving down Military Trail from Delray in that beautiful section around the Polo Club with the majestic palm trees, perfect grass and the manicured

flower beds.

              The Pheasant Walk light turned red; I had to stop, so did a few

          other cars.  A man with white hair and a white moustache quickly moved    to the median of the road; he was the school crossing guard, with

         arms outstreched in his bright colored vest.  The waiting group of

         children started walking across the road in front of our stopped cars

         pushing their small bikes.

              They were young boys accompanied by a mother chaperon also with a bicycle.  All boys wore a large T-shirt and those oversized shorts then  in fashion that look like their father's pants with the bottom of the

         legs cut off.  Each was wearing a ribbed helmet and carrying his school

         books in a backpack.

              I was struck by the vision of that calm, uniform, ordered group of

         youngsters, quietly crossing the road like ducklings going to the pond.

         A few minutes before, during breakfast, I had scanned the headlines of

         assassination in Mexico, fighting in the Middle East, a cataclysmic gas

         explosion in New Jersey, stalled Bosnia peace, troubled Whitewaters. 

    I needed to clear my mind from those catastrophic events.  And now here

         it was, passing in front of us in those idyllic surroundings, the

         quintessential vision of what life should really be all about.

              The light was changing.  The guard, still with his hands raised in

         his bright orange gloves, nimbly side-stepped back to the curb.  The

         boys had crossed the perils of Military Trail and were riding down on

         the bike trail.  Our pack of cars took off leaving behind us that

         vision of innocent youth, that vision of the world as it should be...

                                                                JMG

Boca Raton News 1995

SPIKE

MICROSOFT WORD:

Better than the clipboard, Spike can hold together several portions of text or pictures from the same or separate documents.

For instance to move three non adjacent portions of text to the top of your document:

1. Select the first portion and cut to Spike with Ctrl + F3

2. Repeat the Spiking for portions 2 and 3. Each time, your selected text is cut and added to the existing contents of the Spike clipboard.

Finally, to drop the three selected portions on top of the document for instance:

3. Ctrl + Home to move your cursor to the beginning of your document,

Ctrl + Shift + F3 inserts the contents of Spike. Spike is cleared.

Undue Impact

The terror inspired by rising gas price is somewhat strange since gas is one of many household expenses and not the most significant. Still this increase psychologically has a significant impact on the level of happiness of the consumers.

The main worry should be about the unrest in the Midddle East particularly if it should spread to Saudi Arabia.

The dreaded 4 0 0

The Price of GAS

The popular mood is affected by the price of gasoline. People read and hear about expenses in the millions and billions without batting an eye but an increase of a few cents in the price of a gallon of gas conjures visions of a faulting economy, unemployment, large budget deficits, and inflation galore.

The price of milk also goes up but a few extra cents there are not readily noticeable in a total grocery bill in the fifties or higher. But the gas tank requires twelve to twenty gallons at a time. The higher price now becomes visible.

Particularly since it is posted on large signs at gas stations along your city driving route.The bad news are flashed every few blocks, begging you to watch for the dreaded 400 .

Jacques

Cleaning WIdows

You should periodically clean up your Windows computer: the Directory and the Disk.
Use the Glary utilities obtainable at Glarysoft.com. Download and instal the free version (the professional version is free after you purchase other software!!)
Run the Disk cleaner program and then the Directory Cleaner.
This should improve the performance of your system.

Jacques

TAINTED MEAT - STAPH GERM

STAPH GERM

ATLANTA (AP) — Half the meat and poultry sold in the supermarket may be tainted with the staph germ, a new report suggests.

The new estimate is based on just 136 samples of beef, chicken, pork and turkey purchased from grocery stores in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Flagstaff, Ariz. and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Proper cooking kills the germs, and federal health officials estimate staph accounts for just 3 percent of foodborne illnesses, far less than more common bugs like salmonella and E. coli.

The new study found more than half the samples contained Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria that can make people sick. Worse, half of those contaminated samples had a form of staph that's resistant to at least three kinds of antibiotics.

"This study shows that much of our meat and poultry is contaminated with multidrug-resistant staph," Paul Keim, one of the study's authors, said in a statement. "Now we need to determine what this means in terms of risk to the consumer."

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in a large group

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in a large group

OVERPOPULATION

I remember hearing some bleak predictions on overpopulation some twenty years ago. No doubt the Palm Beach County population has enlarged much in the past twenty years, so have Florida and the United States. Our life span has increased. In spite of murderous wars where millions disappeared, humans are procreating at an increasing rate.

The Indian Continent ( India Pakistan Bangladesh) and China are the leaders. The US has less than one fourth the population of China,  

Having dinner in a restaurant shows you oversized portions served to well-fed diners and make the notion of starving people and shortage of food difficult to visualize.

Some years ago when we still had young children at home, one of them complained about his dessert of ice cream. “Oh! Vanilla again.” I could not resist saying: “ When I was your age during WW2 in occupied Paris I did not even know how ice cream looked. There was nothing to eat.” After some reflection my young son said:” Then how come you did not die.” Yes, how come?

Maybe at his young age he had that foreboding that like the dinosaurs the human race -ever increasing with diminishing resources- is slowly working towards its extinction.

FABLE

La Cigale et la fourmi by Jean de La Fontaine La cigale ayant chanté Tout l'été, Se trouva fort dépourvue Quand la bise fut venue : Pas un seul petit morceau De mouche ou de vermisseau. Elle alla crier famine Chez la fourmi sa voisine, La priant de lui prêter Quelque grain pour subsister Jusqu’à la saison nouvelle. « Je vous paierai, lui dit-elle, Avant l’août, foi d’animal, Intérêt et principal. » La fourmi n’est pas prêteuse : C’est là son moindre défaut. « Que faisiez-vous au temps chaud ? Dit-elle à cette emprunteuse. — Nuit et jour à tout venant Je chantais, ne vous déplaise. — Vous chantiez ? J’en suis fort aise : Eh bien ! Dansez maintenant. »

The Cricket and the Ant translation by Don Webb The cricket had sung her song all summer long but found her victuals too few when the north wind blew. Nowhere could she espy a single morsel of worm or fly. Her neighbor, the ant, might, she thought, help her in her plight, and she begged her for a little grain till summer would come back again. “By next August I’ll repay both Interest and principal; animal’s oath.” Now, the ant may have a fault or two But lending is not something she will do. She asked what the cricket did in summer. “By night and day, to any comer I sang whenever I had the chance.” “You sang, did you? That’s nice. Now dance.”

La Cigale et la fourmi by Jean de La Fontaine La cigale ayant chanté Tout l'été, Se trouva fort dépourvue Quand la bise fut venue : Pas un seul petit morceau De mouche ou de vermisseau. Elle alla crier famine Chez la fourmi sa voisine, La priant de lui prêter Quelque grain pour subsister Jusqu’à la saison nouvelle. « Je vous paierai, lui dit-elle, Avant l’août, foi d’animal, Intérêt et principal. » La fourmi n’est pas prêteuse : C’est là son moindre défaut. « Que faisiez-vous au temps chaud ? Dit-elle à cette emprunteuse. — Nuit et jour à tout venant Je chantais, ne vous déplaise. — Vous chantiez ? J’en suis fort aise : Eh bien ! Dansez maintenant. »

The Cricket and the Ant translation by Don Webb The cricket had sung her song all summer long but found her victuals too few when the north wind blew. Nowhere could she espy a single morsel of worm or fly. Her neighbor, the ant, might, she thought, help her in her plight, and she begged her for a little grain till summer would come back again. “By next August I’ll repay both Interest and principal; animal’s oath.” Now, the ant may have a fault or two But lending is not something she will do. She asked what the cricket did in summer. “By night and day, to any comer I sang whenever I had the chance.” “You sang, did you? That’s nice. Now dance.”

La Cigale et la fourmi by Jean de La Fontaine La cigale ayant chanté Tout l'été, Se trouva fort dépourvue Quand la bise fut venue : Pas un seul petit morceau De mouche ou de vermisseau. Elle alla crier famine Chez la fourmi sa voisine, La priant de lui prêter Quelque grain pour subsister Jusqu’à la saison nouvelle. « Je vous paierai, lui dit-elle, Avant l’août, foi d’animal, Intérêt et principal. » La fourmi n’est pas prêteuse : C’est là son moindre défaut. « Que faisiez-vous au temps chaud ? Dit-elle à cette emprunteuse. — Nuit et jour à tout venant Je chantais, ne vous déplaise. — Vous chantiez ? J’en suis fort aise : Eh bien ! Dansez maintenant. »

The Cricket and the Ant translation by Don Webb The cricket had sung her song all summer long but found her victuals too few when the north wind blew. Nowhere could she espy a single morsel of worm or fly. Her neighbor, the ant, might, she thought, help her in her plight, and she begged her for a little grain till summer would come back again. “By next August I’ll repay both Interest and principal; animal’s oath.” Now, the ant may have a fault or two But lending is not something she will do. She asked what the cricket did in summer. “By night and day, to any comer I sang whenever I had the chance.” “You sang, did you? That’s nice. Now dance.”

OUR DAYS

         Our World of Days                                (Published  originally in march 1997)

             Three months ago, New Year's day was just upon us with its usual resolutions for the  days to come in the New Year.  These are important because each day of the  year should be a special day.

             There are official days for celebration:  Labor, Veterans, Flag,

         Thanksgiving...; and unofficial ones for remembrance:  the Day of

         Infamy, Nov 22nd, D-Day and V-day.  Personal days include our birthday,  wedding, graduation and other memorable family events, sad or happy.

              According to the Bible, it took seven days to create the world,

         forty to flood it; the day of reckoning is still to come.  The

         prophets also wandered thirty or forty days in the desert.

              In the meantime, we think of the days o' auld lang syne, the days

         of wine and roses, our dancing days, the good old days and we realize

         that Rome was not built in a day.

In the Calypso islands the song is Day O!  while around Christmas

we sing of the twelve days thereof.  When our sweetheart croons "Night  and Day, you are the one" we feel like King or Queen of the Day.  In

Oklahoma we get up early to intone "Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh

what a beautiful day."

              In the North, there are snow days but in Delray Beach, that will

         be the day!  Besides a Hard Day's Night we know of work days and

         holidays, blue days and better days.  Some say "I hate the day", but

         still they put in a good day's work knowing that tomorrow is another

         day, that they have seen better days and that Harry said "Go ahead,

         make my day."

              So let us resolve that, from this day forward, we will always

         give the time of day. Let us seize the day and make it a perfect day.

              Today is the first day of the rest of our life.  Smile.

                                            Jacques M GILLY

R I P

It is easy to convert the songs on a CD to the mp3 format so you can play them on your computer and mp3 player.

How to obtain the free  rip program:

Goto freerip.com. In the window that opens, make sure you click on Freerip Basic. It Is FREE to download and to use.

TO rip  a CD with Freerip:

After you instal the program Freerip on your computer,

Load the CD you want to rip in your computer CD drive.

Open the Freerip program from your desktop icon.

Click on Rip then Rip to MP3

VOILÃ

Jacquesmaxx

LYBIA

Again, with UNO approval the USA and other nations intervene in an armed conflict.
If after a week of armed rebellion, Kadhafi's forces seem to be prevailing against the insurgents, maybe we are coming in toolittle too late.
As we say in French" il n'est pas né de la dernière pluie" (he was not born in the latest rain).
Let us hope we have an IraQ #1 with no #2.


Jacques

Picasa full screen view

PICASA:

To quickly view a picture at full screen size, without having to enter Slideshow mode:

In Library View, click on the image you want to view. That selects it (blue frame around it) .Then press and hold down the CTRL and ALT keys simultaneously. The image will display full screen for as long as you keep the keys held down. (In Edit View, the current picture is already selected, so just press and hold CTRL and ALT).

NOTE: The image may look blocky at first, but it will refine momentarily.

jacquesmaxx

CICADAS

Another month and the cicadas will wake up from their thirteen year periodic long sleep. Listen to their strident  grating shrill .

What will be life in 2024 when they reappear again? A new President, another war, our disappearance, more grandchildren, a head-embedded cell phone, global freezing, maybe.

But their song will be the same as ever. 

Photoshop Element Too Bar

The toolbar for editing pictures  with PSE may be hard to figure out.  Some butttons stsnd for several tools, Please find below english captions for each of the small buttons.

LEFT Column of PSE buttons

Button                    INcludes:

Move
Hand
Marquee	Rectangular
	Elliptical
Text	Horizontal
	Vertical
Cookie cutter
Red eye	Removal
Stamp	Clone
	Pattern
Brush	Brush, Impressionist
	Color Replacement
	Pencil Tool
Paint Bucket
Shape selection Tool	Rectangle,Rounded,  Elliptical, Polygon,Line,  Custom,Shape select
Sponge	Dodge, Burn

Right column of PSE buttons

BUTTON           INcludes

Zoom
Eyedropper
Lasso	Magnetic, Polygonal
Selection tool	Brush, Quick
Crop
Straighten
Healing	Spot, Healing brush
Eraser	Magic, Background
Smart brush	Detailed smart Brush
Gradient
Blur tool	Sharpen, Smudge

Willing to stand up??

Unrest in the Middle East  - Sunday, March 06, 2011

EGYPT. Mubarak is out. Today protesters march against the buildings of the State Security Services in several cities. This Agency was used by the US in the rendition program in which terrorists were relocated to Egypt for interrogation.

ALGERIA. Police break up marches by demonstrators.

LIBYA. Gadhafi forces with tanks in fierce battle in Zawiya against rebels.Many casualties reported.

BARHAIN. Anti-monarchy protesters form huge  human chain around capital.

OMAN Oil workers in sit-in at oil field requesting improved social benefits.

YEMEN Thousand protesters cause ruling party members to resign.

All those protesters in favor of a more just and democratic government seem to have a good point. What should a member of the repressing forces do if he agrees with the protesters?

In our country, should a police officer resign when given orders against his beliefs?

How far should we  stand up for our beliefs?

Jacquesmaxx

OLD AGE FRIENDS

Our World of old age friends

As we grow older we don’t realize that we have friends good and bad who influence our life. Let me tell you about them. Some friends are here to help us throughout the day. Unfortunately, there are also some undesirable friends who visit us.

When it is time to get up in the morning from a nice comfortable bed I need my friend Will. It is indeed Will Power who starts my day and I call on him with gratitude. Charlie however is not welcome, so a little walk or some exercise should keep Charlie Horse away.

Unfortunately, Art may visit us some of us. He is unpleasant and difficult to get rid of.  We should take all possible measures to keep Art Ritis at bay. He may be very active and take us from joint to joint. You may want to call on Ben to help; that is Ben Gay of course.

Art’s friend, Ann, is very depressing and she will sap all your energy. Take all measures to combat Ann Eamia. Colette is a pleasant and vivacious person but she has a tendency to drink a little too much. So watch out for a high Colette Sterol. Not good for you. Of course you have severed all relations with Nick Otin a long time ago.

The worst of our visitors is Amnie Zia. Because of Annie, when I go to my kitchen to get something I usually arrive there wondering “What am I here for?” The best thing to do I guess is to write it down.

I was told recently the story where the husband gets up to go to the kitchen and his wife asks him: “Dear,could you please bring me a dish of ice cream? Vanilla.  Now write it down so you don’t forget.” 

“Not necessary” shrugs the man; sure enough he comes back a few minutes later carrying a tray with a cup of tea and a jar of jam.

“See! …I told you!” says his wife. “I knew,I knew you would not remember. Look at that. You forgot to bring the toast.”

Write it down and

                                                                      SMILE

jacquesmaxx

THE BOOKMAN

The bookman

Last night at the 2011 Oscar Presentation, a recipient , in her thank you speech, let the F word slip out of her mouth. Of course the vigilant network blipped out the offensive utterance from the air. That reminded me of our Bookman of yore that we used to avoid similar trouble.

In the High school my children attended (that was in the last century), we had a Bookman. He was on duty every time there was a parents’ meeting at school that same night. He had a couple of spray paint cans and an hour before the meeting he roamed the halls looking for offensive graffiti. Then using the appropriate spray can he would change the F into a B, and the U and the C into an O. Some parents were pleased to see how much their children appeared to like BOOKS!

CAMEO

CAMEO  Picture

1.     Open a picture of a person in PhotoShop Elements (any version)

2.     Use the Elliptical Marquee tool (not the Rectangular) to select the bust of your subject from the picture.

3.     Adjust the position of the selecting oval frame by judicious repeated tapping of the arrow keys on the keyboard.

4.     Get the Feather Selection box with Alt+Ctrl+D. Start with a radius of 20. Click OK.

5.     Save it to the clipboard with Ctrl+C

6.     Create a new blank image with Ctrl+N. Make it 8 ½ X 11. Click on OK.

7.     Paste your feathered selection in the new blank image with Ctrl+V.

8.     Enlarge it and position it as needed.

9.     If you don’t like the effect, go back to step 3 and try a different radius. Eventually you’ll get a pleasant soft effect around your subject.

Additional touches:

§       If you use a colored baby picture of your grandchild , before you paste  the feathered selection, give the new picture a pastel pink/blue background for a professional look.(Edit menu, Fill)

§       If you work with Grandpa’s colored picture, after pasting, give your feathered image that antique look by turning it to grayscale (Image menu / Mode / Grayscale, Flatten if it appears).

§       Prints on matte paper to get a true “beginning of the century” effect (the twentieth century!).

§       Do that with a friend’s picture. You’ll never have to buy a gift again.

US still the leader

 Recently read the comment:” We were, and can and WILL be a great nation again.”

We are a great nation. We are great consumers of imported products from China and others. We are great producers ourselves.We have the top standard of living. We have the greatest armed forces deployed around the world to promote democracy and assert our might . Our Navy with its aircraft carriers is around the globe to bring relief and protection to the stricken spots.

Thank you China for flooding our markets  with inexpensive goods. We remain the producers of sophisticated and refined products and leaders in medicine, literature, film and TV, R and D, living standards.

We will remain a great nation as long as we recognize temporary economic problems and implement  solutions to assure our might.

Jacques

Jacquesmaxx.blogspot.com

Our World of Supers

Our life may have been influenced in our youth by a teacher, certainly by our Mother and Father and in our adult years definitely by our spouse.

 Permit me to introduce today a person that has conditioned the quality of our life possibly without our realizing it. That person, under various names, but in the same capacity, has been and is a determining factor in our daily well being. That is the famous “Super” of apartment buildings up north, also known in our Florida surroundings as the “Property Manager” .

When I came to this country in 1954, I settled in New York City around Brooklyn College. In our area (Nostrand and Avenue I), the Italians were up north along Flatbush Avenue; the Jewish crowd occupied the territory along Eastern Parkway all the way south to the Bay.

The Super in our building was a small wiry man from Scotland who liked the bottle. He had seen better days. He took an immediate liking to me, a compatriot from Overthere.

Every month as I came down to pay my rent, he literally pulled me inside his place for a friendly drinking session. There, he would reminisce about his days of glory in the Old Country. After two glasses of Port (minimum requirement), I managed to escape, leaving him to finish his bottle in his own quiet delusive remembrance of his lost splendor.

My unsolicited friendship eventually paid off. Some problem developed with another young neighboring couple. I mentioned it to my Scottish friend. He said, “Have no fear, Mr. Gilly.” (On the Continent, you do not call people by their first name unless you are related). “ I will take care of it.” He apparently did because within a week that couple had moved out.

This anecdote demonstrates the influence that a Super or a PM (Property Manager) can have on the quality of your life.

Years later, we eventually graduated to our own house in the Washington DC suburbs. No Condo Manager there to contend with. However, we eventually bought a Studio in an Ocean Front Condo in Rehoboth Beach. It was just two hours away, except on those weekends when fifty thousand motorists wanted to cross the Chesapeake Bay bridge at the same time to get there.

After a few months, the nice woman directing the Condo operations was replaced by Fred, the professional, the ultimate and consummate man for the job.

 Fred was a pro. He knew that he had to flatter the Board members and lick their boots. He also had to please the important owners (mainly big time lawyers and lobbyists) by keeping their ownership worry free, regardless of the expense, a costly proposition. He did just that.

Fred always had a deal to save us money provided we paid the high price. In general, he acted as if he were indispensable, irreplaceable and a hero.

Year after year, Fred took us through the classic sequence of events. First, the practically new roof developed some leaks. Fix them? Certainly not. Fred had a deal for a complete new roof, very expensive, but he could get a special price on it, a fantastic saving. After that, we repainted the building, not really needed but a deal you could not refuse. Of course, the parking lot had to be resurfaced to look pretty. A special expensive covering was used but Fred again had a deal. The swimming pool was next. It cost us plenty but we saved a lot!

At his request, Fred’s apartment in the back was given an ocean view by tunneling though the sauna, using its space and part of the front lobby. Another time, overnight, the building acquired twenty washing machines and dryers, again a super deal. To justify the expense, we were told the funds used to create our own private Laundromat was a year-end surplus, that had to be spent to avoid taxes on it. 

Fred’s day of glory culminated at the Annual Owners Meeting when he would give his report. There, he could describe how, single handedly, he had saved our building at the peril of his life the previous winter by closing the open windows and doors during a storm. It was better than watching the Titanic movie. A bonus and a substantial salary increase were immediately approved by acclamation by the lawyers and lobbyists from Washington in the audience.

Today, here in my Florida Condo, some people make decisions over which we have little control. They condition our life and our well being. We are subject to the goodwill of the Front Office for the services we may need. If our status with management is favorable, good reasons are found to do what we suggest. Otherwise, we are cited strict regulations that prevent the same thing. Therefore, it behooves us to be in good terms with the authorities.

As I have been urging you all these years, whatever your status may be, keep smiling. You may eventually be granted what you wish.

SMILE

                                   Jacques M Gilly

Published April 2001 in Condo newspaper

the brown fox

In your MS office word processor, get to a new line and type
=rand(4,9)
Then hit the enter key.
Voila!

CUT DOWN

To get our country back on the right track from the current runaway deficit:

• Washington should cancel the remaining stimulus funds. (Unemployment support could be funded with other savings.)
• The Federal spending should be limited to 20% of GDP as in post WWII years.
• Farm subsidies to agribusinesses should be reformed.
• Federal employees compensation and benefits are 30% above the private sector and should be brought down.That’s over 45 billion dollars a year.
• Drop the annual “doc gift” (cuts for Doctors on Medicare payments) and above all
• defuse the ticking Obamacare timebomb.

The list can go on and on